Distanza
by Clap-For-Carolyn
Summary: Bio-terrorists seeking the secrets of Phoenix Disease ensnare the person they deem closest to the virus. Black Jack has little choice but to give chase, lest the entirety of the human race falls victim.  WIP, spoilers for the 21 series, eventual yaoi


**d i s t a n z a **

**p h a s e o n e**

**p h o e n i x r i s i n g**

**000**

_-The gun goes off; the sound is unmistakable, ripping through soft silence. Echoing like a heartbeat.- _

**When did all of this start? It's hard to say.**

**It's strange to think that I've known you for what seems like forever.**

**But I have.**

**A chance meeting so many years ago.**

_-It did start a long time ago, in a white washed room with blaring florescent lights. It is a surreal memory, hazy and haloed around the edges, causing doubt to whether or not it happened at all. Yet it is imprinted so deeply, lingering just below the surface, waiting. Waiting for the right trigger so it can all come rushing back in a moment.-_

**I could barely walk, you could barely see straight.**

**We played the piano together, didn't we?**

**One morning I woke up and you where gone. That seems to be a trend with you.**

_-Broken. Shattered. The little bits that where lost forever. You can try to piece the parts of yourself together, but will it ever be the same again? The fractures won't go away, there are new jagged edges that refuse to be smoothed and forgotten. Just when you think it's over, it crumbles again. So fragile. Lie to everyone and say your okay.-_

**Destruction and salvation.**

**Different, you and I. But similar.**

_**-**__Agreeing to disagree and disagreeing to agree. Grim necessities and circumstances beyond mortal control. The world works in paradoxes. This couldn't work, this shouldn't work. It shouldn't hurt, because there isn't any reason to care. Lie to yourself and say you're still okay.-_

**They say whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.**

**Does it really?**

_-It's red. Red like apples. Red like her dress, like fire engines, like roses, like fire and burning sunsets. Blood red, and the flow can't be arrested. It'll seep in to everything, staining hands and souls. The color of mortality. Red like your fading eyes.-_

**If I promise to smile, will you do the same?**

**000**

"Chen-che!" the voice came muffled from behind the door leading out of Tom's Café. He ignored it at first, continuing to read the paper and drink his coffee.

Suddenly the door burst open and slammed on the wall behind it. Pinoko came tumbling in, cell phone in hand. She climbed up upon the stool next to Black Jack and promptly shoved the pink electronic in his face.

"Chen-che, it's for you! It sounds real bad!" She flailed around with the phone until he sighed and took it from her.

"Hello?" there was a sniffle from the other side of the line, then;

=Black Jack?=

"Yes. Who is this?"

=I-It's me, Yuri.= That name and the soft sobs that accompanied it heralded a train wreck in the making. The sense of familiarity in the situation crept over him, and the dread welled up.

"Yuri? What's wrong? What's going on?"

=I-I'm s-sorry, I-I didn't know w-who else to go to.= She was still crying, borderline hysterical and barely able to talk in coherent sentences.

"It's alright. Calm down and tell me what happened." By this point Black Jack was already moving and half way out of the café's back door.

She laughed, choking on her tears. =W-wouldn't you figure, i-it's the only t-time he bothers t-to come home, a-and t-they come looking for him- Oh god, they took Kiriko.=

"Slow down, slow down! Are you alright?"

= T-they said t-they were looking for Phoenix. And because Dad…= Yuri trailed off again.

'_Oh hell.'_

"Yuri. Are you somewhere safe for the moment?"

=Y-yes, I'm at t-the airport.=

"Listen carefully. I'm going to give you my bank account number. Use it to book the earliest flight to Tokyo that you can find. The longer you're there the higher the chance they'll come back for you."

=O-okay.= He heard her shuffle around for a pen and paper, the gave her time to copy down the numbers. In the mean time Pinoko had wandered out back as well to see what all the fuss was about.

"That's where I'll meet you, alright? We'll go from there. Call back right away if you need anything or if you feel like someone's following you. Can you do that?"

"Chen-che, what's wrong?"

He closed the phone with a snap and handed it back to Pinoko. "We're leaving."

"Now?"

"Now. It's an emergency."

**000**

_Phoenix. The virus that could have whipped out humanity. _

_It was connected to a global conspiracy that we didn't even realize we were a part of. The truth behind Phoenix nearly killed me multiple times. And here it was, threatening the world again. _

_Discovered in a remote cave in the Canadian wilderness by a Dr. Edward George, the mysterious virus was found to generate its own electrical current. An electrical output that was so strong that it could be used as a self sufficient power source. The Noir project that he was a part of was obsessed with finding immortality, and they used this virus as the foundation for their 'eternal life'._

_Phoenix killed them all._

_Phoenix causes symptoms at random and unprovoked organ failure. It can't be stopped by conventional medical means. I know. I've tried. Just when you think it's over, it rises from the ashes. The one and only thing that can stop Phoenix is the virus itself. Mutated by radiation, the secondary form has an opposite charge that cancels out the original strain. This cure was made available to the general public at no charge to those victims that had been accidentally infected. That way, no one company could ever gain a profit from innocent suffering. _

_There would be no reason to use Phoenix as a bio weapon if it could be neutralized so easily, right? Either this new threat was minimal because of that, or…_

…_It could be extremely dangerous. _

**000**

_-Six hours later-_

The airport was packed as always, but it wasn't hard to pick out a blonde foreigner standing nervously outside of the incoming flights gate. She was twisting a lock of her hair around repeatedly, eyes downcast as she tried to look inconspicuous. Yuri didn't notice as Black Jack came up beside her and she jumped when he touched her shoulder.

"Black Jack!"

"I'm glad to see you made it alright."

She pushed her hair back. "I'm sorry, I wasn't sure who else to go to. After everything that happened…" Yuri trailed off. She was on edge, obviously, but her eyes shown with steadfast resolve that promised a fight should one find her. Seeing as how Yuri had nearly shot Black Jack in the face the first time they had met, he had no wish to ever be an enemy.

"Yuri-san!" suddenly Pinoko was at their heels, bouncing in excitement and trying to drag off the one bag of luggage the blonde had thrown together. Pinoko wasn't making much progress as even though _the_ suitcase was small it was still bigger than she was.

"Didn't I tell you to wait in the car?"

"But Chen-che, it's boring out in the car." She pouted with her tiny hands on her hips. "And I wanted to help!"

He sighed and picked up the bag Pinoko was still trying to move, much to her dismay. "You can tell me what happened on the way."

**000**

_ The day had started normally enough. _

She had gotten up early as usual, to do her morning patrol of the forest. It was more of a formality at this point, only the new or stupid poachers dared to hunt in the area surrounding the cabin. Yet she did it anyway out of sense of duty and it was better than sitting around an empty house all day. It had gotten a bit lonely after her father had passed away and her brother had walked out. Again.

Yeah, he was rather good at leaving, wasn't he?

Which is why Yuri hadn't been sure how exactly to react when she found him standing outside the front door. Half of her wanted to run over and hug him, and the other half really just wanted to strangle him. She did neither.

"What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "If I've been disowned without my knowledge I'll leave-"

"No." she sighed. "Might as well come inside."

Yuri slung her rifle over her shoulder and unlocked the door, then headed straight for the kitchen. She grabbed the kettle with shaking hands and went through the motions of preparing tea for the both of them, mostly as something to distract her from the awkward tension filling the room. She didn't remember putting the rifle down until Kiriko had replaced it back up on the wall where it belonged. The sense of déjà vu of the moment was almost scary. He came home, he left, and was back again, then the moment when she wasn't looking he was gone. Yuri couldn't help thinking how long it would take this time.

And it scared her to think that they were the only ones left.

She's strangely calm as she pours the hot water in to matching cups. Maybe calm wasn't the right word for it, with her thought racing from one thing to another, some idea relevant and others not so much. It was more of a stoic acceptance at the hand fate seemed to keep dealing her.

Neither of them has said a word since the brief conversation outside. She's sitting across from him at the small kitchen table, still stuck in silence. It takes agonizingly long minutes for Yuri to decide to speak again.

"Why… did you come back?" she means to ask him, but says it staring down in to the muddy tea water instead. She picks up on the shrug of his shoulders even though she doesn't actually lift her head to witness it.

"…I meant to apologize, though I know it's of little use."

Her head snaps up at that, and try as she might she can't keep the anger out of her voice. "Apologize for _what_, exactly?"

He flinches and shakes his head. He won't look at her. And she's torn, trying to decide whether or not he went too far this time.

Her thoughts were interrupted yet again by the sound of rumbling engines. Confused that someone else would be this far out in to the wilderness, Yuri automatically glanced out the kitchen window. Three black trucks had pulled up outside of the small cabin, lined up in a semi-circle around the front entrance. There was this sense of wrongness that came with these strange vehicles.

"…Did you invite company?"

"Of course not." Kiriko was frowning. "I'm assuming then those aren't your very military-esc friends pouring out of un-marked cars lacking license plates."

Yuri went white as a sheet. The whole lot of them where armed to the teeth with semi-automatics. Not poachers with guns fitted for game hunting- You don't need and AK-47 to take down a deer.

"Go out the back." Kiriko already had the rifle in hand, loading it and removing the safety lock. "Now."

"What?" Was he suggesting she run away and leave him behind to face an unknown and probably not too friendly group of men with heavy firepower? "Like hell I am!"

"Damn it Yuri, listen to me for once!" he hissed. "I highly doubt they're here for _you_." Which meant they were probably here for _him. _

Yuri gives in, like she always seems to for him, and she's fleeing out the back door before it has a chance to register that she could be leaving him to certain death.

Certain death. She wants to laugh but all that comes is panicked tears.

**000**

Yuri doesn't run and hide, not at first. She stays pressed against the far side of the cabin that can't be seen from the front. She's safe so long as she's quiet and no one comes around the corner. From here she can hear most of the tense conversation. Kiriko has two shots with that rifle, not nearly enough to have any hope of defending himself.

There's one voice that identifies itself as Malarian. His accent is thick and possibly Spanish, or maybe Portuguese in origin. The words he speaks would sound rational enough if there wasn't the edge of honeyed poison to them.

He asks about their father, about Phoenix, the Noir Project, immortality.

Kiriko tells him exactly where he can shove it.

There's a sickening crack and the low sound of a body hitting the ground.

Yuri does run this time.

**000**

She doesn't come back to the family cabin until the light is nearly gone from the sky. The trucks are gone, as are the men, leaving nothing but tire marks and foot prints to prove they had existed. There's also blood mixed in to the dirt next to the fallen rifle.

Her brother is nowhere to be found.

**000**

Yuri's retelling of the last twenty four hours ended abruptly and threw the car into silence. She wasn't crying now, jaw set with hidden determination and blue eyes flaring with a cold fire. It was something Black Jack had seen before… just not with Yuri. But what else could he expect from her?

"I didn't come to you because I wanted you to save him." She continued with a level tone. "I know how the two of you get."

He was cursing the universe in his head the whole time. "The Phoenix virus… Whatever they want it for, it won't be a benefit to humanity." Black Jack was also cursing himself for thinking this whole issue was done and over with. What a nice thought, to not be running from someone or dealing with a medical catastrophe.

"Chen-che?" a small voice interjected from the backseat. "What are we going to do?"

That was a very good question. They could contact the government, or any of the various global medical and humane groups… Yet that would take time to do, time to convince them of the threat and then even more time wasted as they discussed and debated and disagreed on the best course of action. Something like this going public might even cause the offending party to move more rapidly and in an instant cause a crisis that may be beyond fixing.

No, the most efficient option was to act on their own accord.

**000**

e n d c h a p t e r o n e

**000**

**AN:** Damn this bitch is done… Time to get cracking on the next chapter. _ A few things before I go though, some warnings and clearing of confusion:

_This will be a yaoi story._ Don't approve? STFU and/or GTFO because I really don't care what you think is right or wrong- This is why it's called fanfiction. Here's your warning. Leave while you can.

_This follows a mix of timelines._ While mostly taken from the very awesome Black Jack 21 anime series, there will be random other cannon thrown in the mix. The manga is too entertaining not to include some. :D

_This will have head cannon_. And probably references to things you might not quite get at first. If anyone need clarification on **anything**, feel free to review or PM me. I don't bite! XD

I'm also open to suggestions and help. See a mistake or a typo somewhere? Don't hesitate to point it out!

Other than that, sit back and enjoy!


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